Paradoxes

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A paradox can be defined as an unacceptable conclusion derived by apparently acceptable reasoning from apparently acceptable premises. Many paradoxes raise serious philosophical problems, and they are associated with crises of thought and revolutionary advances. The expanded and revised third edition of this intriguing book considers a range of knotty paradoxes including Zeno's paradoxical claim that the runner can never overtake the tortoise, a new chapter on paradoxes about morals, paradoxes about belief, and hardest of all, paradoxes about truth. The discussion uses a minimum of technicality but also grapples with complicated and difficult considerations, and is accompanied by helpful questions designed to engage the reader with the arguments. The result is not only an explanation of paradoxes but also an excellent introduction to philosophical thinking.

R.M. Sainsbury is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin. He was editor of the journal Mind for a decade from 1990 and his many publications include Reference Without Referents (2005, 2007) and Logical Forms, 2nd edition (2000).

Foreword to third edition

p. vii

Introduction

p. 1

Suggested reading

p. 3

Zeno's paradoxes: space, time, and motion

p. 4

Introduction

p. 4

Space

p. 5

The Racetrack

p. 11

The Racetrack again

p. 15

Achilles and the Tortoise

p. 19

The Arrow

p. 19

Suggested reading

p. 21

Moral paradoxes

p. 22

Crime Reduction

p. 22

Mixed Blessings

p. 27

Not Being Sorry

p. 31

Moral dilemmas

p. 34

Suggested reading

p. 39

Vagueness: the paradox of the heap

p. 40

Sorites paradoxes: preliminaries

p. 40

Sorites paradoxes: some options

p. 46

Accepting the conclusion: Unger's view

p. 48

Rejecting the premises: the epistemic theory

p. 49

Rejecting the premises: supervaluations

p. 51

Rejecting the reasoning: degrees of truth

p. 56

Vague objects?

p. 63

Suggested reading

p. 66

Acting rationally

p. 69

Newcomb's paradox

p. 69

The Prisoner's Dilemma

p. 82

Suggested reading

p. 88

Believing rationally

p. 90

Paradoxes of confirmation

p. 90

Background

p. 90

The paradox of the Ravens

p. 95

"Grue"

p. 99

The Unexpected Examination

p. 107

Revising the Unexpected Examination

p. 110

The Knower

p. 115

Suggested reading

p. 120

Classes and truth

p. 123

Russell's paradox

p. 123

The Liar: semantic defects

p. 127

Grounding and truth

p. 129

The Strengthened Liar

p. 132

Levels

p. 133

Self-reference

p. 137

Indexicality

p. 138

Indexical circularity

p. 139

Comparison: how similar are Russell's paradox and the Liar?

p. 142

Suggested reading

p. 145

Are any contradictions acceptable?

p. 150 è

Contradictions entail everything

p. 151

A sentence which is both true and false could have no intelligible content